Running Away
by NyxBorn
Summary: After Sirius runs away, he stops at his favorite cousin's house.


Frantic pounding on her door woke the poor, sleep-deprived Andromeda up. Blearily, she rubs her eyes and throws on a set of random robes that were tossed onto her chair last night. She scrubs her teeth, and attempts to drag a brush through her matted curls. She has no idea why she does this, she feels a knot of tension in her stomach, she doesn't want to go, no one can make her-

"ROMMY TONKS! GET DOWN HERE! IT'S FREEZING OUTSIDE!" So. That was the knot of tension she felt. It's her cousin. But she can't call him that. Couldn't for three years. She doesn't know why, but she feels bad, there is a cramp-like feeling in her stomach, she just feels sicksicksick-

"ANDROMEDA TONKS!"

"Coming!" She calls to that voice. She presses a kiss on Ted's forehead, inwardly noting how hot it feels. She pulls on some slippers, grabs her wand, and hurls downstairs.

"Damn it, Rommy! If you don't get down here I will-" She tugs the door open, and Sirius Black falls into her, his tall frame making her as-short-as-Bellatrix-Lestrange-body nearly fall. She flings out one arm to catch the wall, steadying them.

"Roomy." He whispers. "I've done it too. I'm disowned. I'm the sixth White Thestral, and er, the second one in our generation."

Something about his excitement feels _wrong_- sick wrong, wrong wrong wrong. When she was disowned , she felt like Sirius, at least, might still not be disowned. That one misfit might still stay. He had said it so happily, so causally- did he not care about Regulus?

"Regulus. What about Regulus? Will you leave him? In there? Alone? Sirius, it's not too late for you-You can go back there!" She grasps his shoulders. That place is awful, but there was Bella and Cissa and Rius and Reggie and Uncle Alphard-Who-Is-Not-UncleAlphard-But-Is-Just-MisterBlack. Sirius can not be like her. He's too young-he doesn't know, didn't think of the pain of seeing them in passing, or of mirrors. She can't let his family hate him-what used to be her family.

He shakes his head, as if batting away a fly. "I can't. Regulus will be fine without me. Walburga and Orion will take care of him- he is the Black Heir, and has always been their favorite child. I'm curious- Can I see the famous Druidmoura? Nimloura? And Tim Tonks?"

It irks, so easily has he stopped calling them _Mother_ and _Father_, how easily he dismisses Regulus, his little baby brother. She can't help it. She corrects him. "It's _Nymphadora_ and _Ted_."

He shrugs. "Knew it was something like that. Some nature name, or one that began with N. And rhymed with"Aura." And I nearly got Ted's right. Close enough."

How can he? How can he be so heartless about his family? But the motherly side comes out in her. "Do you need somewhere to stay? I'm sorry, though-You can't stay here. Bella tr-ix* tried to torture me when I ran away-She'd definitely kill us and Ted and Nymphadora, and Nymphadora has Chicken Pox, Ted says that's some Muggle decease and how it'll help bring up her immunity, it's like Dragon Pox, I suppose, and Ted has a fever, so it's impossible to stay here, I'm sorry-"

He cuts her off. "Rommy. Relax. Stop blabbering. I already have a place to stay. Uncle Alphard-I mean Alphard gave me a lot of gold, I suppose he will be the seventh White Thestral now. Walburga should be burning him off about now." He turns his head towards 12 Grimmauld Place.

Insulted, she rallies up her sharp and cutting words. "Alphard gave you gold? He didn't give me gold when I ran away. I always knew he liked you better. And who are you staying with? Why didn't you think of me? I was your favorite cousin before I was disowned-I am possibly your favorite star-named person, who is female. I-"

"Rommy, you just explained why I couldn't stay here! And I'm staying with Charlus and Doria. Potter. And would you have taken the gold?"

"_No_, of course not! It would of been nice of him to ask, though! Jimmy's parents? Regulus's first cousins once removed?"

"_James_. And, yes, those people. Andromeda, you get insulted when he didn't offer you the gold, even though you wouldn't accept it! Honestly, Rommy!"

She laughs, and for the first time since she got disowned, it is with one with the name of Black.

"Rius-Sirius-Promise me something."

Something about her tone makes him look at her again. "What, Andromeda?"

"Promise me-Promise me you will never take for granted those memories of us-of Bella and me and Cissa and you and Reggie. Promise me you will never fight with them. Promise me-Promise me-" She swallows painfully, and tears fill her eyes. "Promise me that you will never for get your old life when you start your new one."

"I will, Rommy."

She knows he doesn't mean it, but she doesn't care. She knows he will, someday. As he Dissaperates away, she fixes the moment in her memory. She knows, somehow, that she will never see Sirius Orion Black, her little Rius, her adolescent Sirius ever again.

*She said Bella, and made it Bellatrix, so she would get used to saying it. She was about to say "Bella tried", but then made it Bellatrix mid-word.

AN-J.K. Rowling said Sirius never saw Tonks or Ted after Andromeda ran away until after Tonks joined the new Order of the Phoenix. But she never said Sirius didn't see Andromeda. And if Andromeda really was his favorite cousin, wouldn't he go see her when he ran away, too?


End file.
